{"id":1187251,"date":"2026-09-05T04:34:25","date_gmt":"2026-09-05T04:34:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1187251\/"},"modified":"2026-09-05T04:34:25","modified_gmt":"2026-09-05T04:34:25","slug":"germanys-far-right-afd-is-poised-for-power-and-split-on-whether-to-cozy-up-to-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1187251\/","title":{"rendered":"Germany\u2019s far-right AfD is poised for power \u2013 and split on whether to cozy up to Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n The Alternative for Germany (AfD) party is speeding into state elections in Saxony-Anhalt on Sunday with a sizeable lead in the polls. If the party gets an outright majority, it will put the far right<\/a> in charge of a state for the first time since World War II.\n <\/p>\n

\n The party is projected to get 42% of the vote in the eastern German state, according to pollster Infratest dimap<\/a> \u2013 a massive jump compared to its support just a couple years ago, and potentially enough to propel it to power in the country\u2019s electoral system.\n <\/p>\n

\n But there are roadblocks to the AfD expanding its success in mainstream German politics.\n <\/p>\n

\n The party has been classified as \u201cextremist\u201d by German intelligence<\/a> for its rhetoric in relation to Muslim citizens of Germany and on immigration, and it\u2019s been denounced by mainstream conservatives and progressives alike.\n <\/p>\n

\n All other parties in the country operate a so-called \u201cfirewall\u201d \u2013 an unwritten rule to not form a coalition with the AfD or work together in parliament. If the AfD doesn\u2019t get an absolute majority in Sunday\u2019s elections, all other parties could form a ragtag coalition to shut it out of power in the state.\n <\/p>\n

\n It\u2019s partly that isolation at home that has compelled the AfD to seek out ties with the United States\u2019 MAGA movement.\n <\/p>\n

\n It\u2019s also partly the shared right-wing politics and the brazen rhetoric and branding \u2013 hats with the slogan \u201cMake Germany Great Again\u201d are not uncommon at AfD events now. And the ties go well beyond merch.\n <\/p>\n

\"AfD<\/p>\n

\n The party\u2019s co-leader Alice Weidel met with US Vice President JD Vance on the sidelines of the Munch Security Conference last year. Before that, she also joined Elon Musk<\/a> for a livestream event on his platform, X. And a small group of AfD politicians travelled to Washington for US President Donald Trump\u2019s second inauguration.\n <\/p>\n

\n In return, Trump administration officials have also lent the party a hand on several occasions. Vance used his 2025 speech in Munich to urge German lawmakers to end their \u201cfirewall\u201d against the far-right. Secretary of State Marco Rubio decried German authorities officially labelling the party as extremist, calling the decision \u201ctyranny in disguise.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n But as Trump continues to raise eyebrows in Europe for some of his foreign policy moves \u2013 particularly the war in Iran, saber-rattling in Greenland and intervention in Venezuela \u2013 some factions of the AfD now appear interested in keeping their distance.\n <\/p>\n

\n It comes as the United States\u2019 reputation among the German public has fallen and many of Trump\u2019s foreign policy decisions are widely disliked. A poll<\/a> by Germany\u2019s public broadcaster ARD in March found that 58% of Germans considered the attacks on Iran unjustified. And in January, another ARD poll found that 72% of the population considered the arrest of former Venezuelan leader Nicol\u00e1s Maduro unjustified.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI think there is ideological alignment on key issues, and I think the AfD is also learning from the MAGA movement,\u201d said Almut M\u00f6ller, the director for European and global affairs at the European Policy Centre, a think tank in Brussels. The two parties particularly align when it comes to rhetoric about how the country should \u201ccare about (its) own people and stop caring about everybody else,\u201d M\u00f6ller said.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cHaving said that, it is not a straightforward relationship to handle at all times,\u201d M\u00f6ller told CNN, particularly when it comes to \u201cpolicies that affect the German economy,\u201d such as the Trump tariffs or pain at the gas pump amid the Iran war.\n <\/p>\n

\n Against that backdrop, the leaders of the AfD have yo-yoed back and forth between praising Trump\u2019s domestic stances on immigration, culture war issues and nationalism, while criticizing his interference in other countries.\n <\/p>\n

\n The AfD lawmaker who also serves as the party\u2019s foreign policy spokesperson, Markus Frohnmaier, told CNN he has made multiple trips to the United States this year and has fostered strong links with the MAGA movement. Speaking in his office in the Bundestag just days before the election, he said their politics have plenty in common, especially on the issue of immigration.\n <\/p>\n

\n The AfD has campaigned on proposals to deport migrants and refugees, as well as expand mass detention facilities \u2013 a policy widely referred to as \u201cremigration.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Party officials have frequently used anti-Muslim rhetoric and singled out Muslim and Ukrainian residents when talking about who they wish to deport.\n <\/p>\n

\n Another pledge is to create separate schools for the children of refugees, to teach them the curriculum of their home countries.\n <\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

\n With a US border patrol cap displayed on his bookcase, Frohnmaier called Trump\u2019s handling of migration \u201creally impressive,\u201d adding, \u201cI think this is something what we need in Germany too \u2013 a really good border control, probably something like ICE, and that would improve the situation dramatically.\u201d<\/strong>\n <\/p>\n

\n Frohnmaier also has in his office a famous 2020 photo of Trump holding a bible <\/a>at a Washington, DC, church amid protests near the White House. But Frohnmaier was clear that there are American policies he doesn\u2019t support.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cMy colleagues and friends in the US know that we are more critical when it comes to the war in Iran,\u201d he said.\n <\/p>\n

\n When it comes to the hot-button issue of US tariffs, Frohnmaier said, \u201cI mean, it would be a bit weird if Donald Trump would protect German interests, right?\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cIt\u2019s okay to agree not in all points with each other\u2026 They need to protect American interests, and we\u2019re German, and we try to protect our interests,\u201d he told CNN.\n <\/p>\n

\n Frohnmaier, who has also made multiple trips to Russia, has walked a careful tightrope in his foreign policy role \u2013 courting MAGA Republicans at the same time as establishing ties with Kremlin insiders.\n <\/p>\n

\n For supposedly a state-level election, Russia has been a feature.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWe\u2019re quite transparent about saying that we want an especially good relationship with Russia, of course, but also with the United States of America, because those are simply important players in this world,\u201d said Ulrich Siegmund, the AfD candidate for the premiership in Saxony-Anhalt, who would lead the state in the event that his party gets an outright majority of votes on Sunday.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWe see American interests, we see Russian interests, but we have our own interest, namely the German interest,\u201d Siegmund told CNN in an August interview.\n <\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

\n The AfD\u2019s support of Russia is no secret \u2013 the party is against further aid and defense packages for Ukraine, often referring to defense funding for Kyiv as money that is not being spent on programs for German people.\n <\/p>\n

\n Key party officials have also made frequent trips to Moscow, St. Petersberg and the occupied Crimean peninsula \u2013 something that has raised alarm bells among corruption watchdogs<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n

\n The AfD has also vowed to bring back the cheap Russian gas that once fueled Germany but has been phased out following Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.\n <\/p>\n

\n But for eastern states, like Saxony-Anhalt, which were once under the purview of the Soviet Union, M\u00f6ller said \u201cit runs deeper than the cost of energy. There is a long tradition of working with Russia in Germany.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Of course, issues of foreign relations and immigration aren\u2019t decided on the state level.\n <\/p>\n

\n Analyst Gr\u00e9goire Roos, the director of the Europe and Russia and Eurasia Programs at Chatham House, said he would expect the AfD to lean more into issues of culture, education and local policing if it secures power in Saxony-Anhalt.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cYou would likely see patterns comparable to those we\u2019ve seen in the US in terms of how you change school programs, put pressure on police forces,\u201d Roos told CNN.\n <\/p>\n

\n Roos also said he would expect to see the AfD state government take up \u201ccultural fights\u201d such as banning LGBTQ+ flags, restricting inclusion policies in schools, creating rules to raise the German flag in schools and possibly enacting changes in history books.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI think those would not transform daily life, as such, but it would infringe on some of some of what is seen as basic liberties in Germany,\u201d the analyst said. \u201cThey will understand that this is a laboratory, a window to or magnifying glass put on what they could deliver at a national scale, and so they would focus on symbols.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\"People<\/p>\n

\n A win would also give the AfD a presence in Germany\u2019s upper house of parliament, the Bundesrat, which would be a symbolic win for the party, but would likely not move the needle much on national policy.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThis is of course a strong opportunity to basically show that they\u2019re at the gates of power now,\u201d M\u00f6ller added. \u201cEven though Saxony-Anhalt is a small federal state and has less than 2 million inhabitants, this will resonate more widely.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n The polls indicate the election could go either way. All other mainstream parties in Saxony-Anhalt are polling at 54% combined, according to Infratest dimap. Some of those parties won\u2019t even reach the 5% threshold to have any of their votes counted, which is why the AfD could secure power with less than half the electorate.\n <\/p>\n

\n Taken together, it means the AfD\u2019s projected support of 42% presents a loud knock on those gates of power.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Alternative for Germany (AfD) party is speeding into state elections in Saxony-Anhalt on Sunday with a sizeable…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1187252,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5310],"tags":[2000,299,1824],"class_list":["post-1187251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-germany","tag-eu","tag-europe","tag-germany"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/117216576556274276","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1187251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1187251"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1187251\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1187252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1187251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1187251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1187251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}